Marsh Chapel Experiment

The round window above the altar at Boston University's Marsh Chapel resembles a mandala.

The Marsh Chapel Experiment (a.k.a. "the Good Friday Experiment") was run by Walter N. Pahnke, a graduate student in theology at Harvard Divinity School, under the supervision of Timothy Leary and the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to see if in religiously predisposed subjects, psilocybin (the active principle in psilocybin mushrooms) would act as reliable entheogen. The experiment was conducted on Good Friday, 1962 at Boston University's Marsh Chapel. ^[1] Prior to the Good Friday service, graduate degree divinity student volunteers from the Boston area were randomly divided into two groups. In a double-blind experiment, half of the students received psilocybin, while a control group received a large dose of niacin. Niacin produces clear physiological changes and thus was used as a psychoactive placebo. In at least some cases, those who received the niacin initially believed they had received the psychoactive drug.^[2]

However, the feeling of face flushing (turning red, feeling hot and tingly) produced by niacin subsided over the first hour or so. Meanwhile, the effects of the psilocybin intensified over the first few hours. Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences.

In 2006, a more rigorously controlled version of this experiment was conducted at Johns Hopkins University by Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D., yielding very similar results.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ Pahnke, Walter N., Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness. A thesis presented to the Committee on Higher Degrees in History and Philosophy of Religion, Harvard University, June 1963. Cited in Masters, R.E.L., & Houston, Jean., The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (Turnstone Books, 1973).
2. ^ Doblin, Rick; PAHNKE'S "GOOD FRIDAY EXPERIMENT'A LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP AND METHODOLOGICAL CRITIQUE p. 5[1]
3. ^ Griffiths RR, Richards WA, Johnson HW, McCann UD, Jesse R: Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later

References

Roberts, T. B. (editor) (2001). Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion. San Francosco: Council on Spiritual Practices.

Roberts, T. B., and Hruby, P. J. (1995-2002). Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments An Entheogen Chrestomathy. Online archive. [2]

Roberts, T. B. "Chemical Input—Religious Output: Entheogens." Chapter 10 in Where God and Science Meet: Vol. 3: The Psychology of Religious Experience Robert McNamara (editor)(2006). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.

External links

• Erowid's Pahnke Vault Contains copious information and documentation, including Pahnke's doctoral dissertation "Drugs and Mysticism"
• A brief video describing the immediate and long term effects of the Marsh Chapel Experiment on Reverend Randall Laakko
• Media reports of 2006 Johns Hopkins Research including ABC News video, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times
• A newspaper article describing the experiment in more detail, with a focus on the experiment's immediate and long term effects on Reverend Mike Young
• http://www.flurl.com/item/Marsh_Chapel_Experiment_u_163626
• "Entheogens—Sacramentals or Sacrilege?" syllabus for a university course
• Johns Hopkins Medicine press release (2006)